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No one would ever claim that Vancouver is the birthplace of jazz. New Orleans usually gets that honour. But it is worth pointing out that Vancouverites were exposed remarkably early to that most American of musical forms.

Pictured above is the Patricia Hotel on East Hastings near Main (Courtesy City of Vancouver Archives AM1535-: CVA 99-187). Built just...

Looking for a good movie?

If you happen to be in Vancouver on Wednesday, February 21, drop down to the Vancity Theatre and join me for a presentation of My Dinner With Andre. The 1981 classic is showing as part of the Vancouver International Film Festival's...

My friend Eve Lazarus notes the 50th anniversary of the opening of the main terminal at Vancouver's International Airport, which reminds me of a story about former mayor L.D. Taylor. (Admittedly, it doesn't take much to remind me of stories about L.D.)

Before the airport itself (as opposed to the terminal building) opened on Sea Island in July 1931 there was a makeshift airfield in Richmond....

Last week I gave a presentation on the history of North Vancouver to the Vancouver Historical Society, based on my book Where Mountains Meet the Sea. The VHS filmed that talk and has uploaded it to YouTube where you can watch it here.

Note that the VHS now makes all of its monthly talks available online. Just scroll down the links and you'll find some very interesting stuff.

I recently had the pleasure of hearing archaeologist Bob Muckle talk about the work he and his Capilano University students have been doing excavating an old Japanese logging camp in the valley of the Seymour River (not the camp pictured below but one not far away). A summary of Bob's work appeared in BC Studies a year ago and may be found here.

I had no appreciation of how extensive Japanese logging...